The Male Lead's Harem Belongs to Me (GL) - Chapter 19.2
The next day, when Jiang Han regained consciousness, she first smelled a faint fragrance, and then felt a warmth in her arms. She groped around her body.
Hmm… a bit soft.
Jiang Han suddenly realized something, she abruptly opened her eyes, and then met the deep gaze of the person in her arms.
Jiang Han: “……” She just said, why does it feel so soft and fragrant?
Jiang Han awkwardly smiled, subtly put down her hand, and greeted, “Good morning, sister.”
Liu Shuwei glanced at her and said softly, “Good morning, sister.”
Clearly, there was no intention to hold it against her. Jiang Han felt relieved, gave a forced smile, and was about to get up when suddenly, a flustered voice from outside the door interrupted.
“Princess… Princess, Miss, the old lady, she… she brought the second young miss and caused a scene in front of the mansion gate!”
Jiang Han and Liu Shuwei exchanged glances. Jiang Han noticed the indifference and worry in Liu Shuwei’s eyes. She gave Liu Shuwei a comforting look and asked Shui Lu, “Is the Prince at home?”
“Not here, they are now begging to see you, Princess.”
Jiang Han flipped over and sat up, recalling the plot in the book. Coming to the Prince mansion at this time, it seemed that the Liu family had gone bankrupt. Jiang Han curled her lips and smiled, saying, “Please invite them in and tell them I’ll be there shortly.”
“Servant has asked,” before Jiang Han could speak, Shui Lu said awkwardly, “But they… they won’t come in, insisting that the Princess must go out to meet them.”
Jiang Han frowned and was about to speak when Liu Shuwei coldly said, “Go tell them, if they keep causing trouble like this, the Princess will not see them.”
Seeing that Jiang Han did not voice any objections, Shui Lu outside responded and left.
Jiang Han didn’t rashly speak up; she knew that Liu Shuwei was a person with a strong sense of self-esteem. The Liu family had done this kind of thing repeatedly, and Liu Shuwei must be feeling very uncomfortable inside. She wouldn’t want others to see her in such a passive state.
The air inside the room felt slightly stagnant. While Jiang Han was pondering how to start the conversation, Liu Shuwei let out a light sigh and, with a hint of fatigue, said to Jiang Han, “Sister, I’m going to trouble you again this time. No matter what requests they make later, don’t agree to any of them. Just drive them away directly.”
Liu Shuwei didn’t want to make things difficult for Jiang Han repeatedly because of her family’s issues. Moreover, the Liu family came either seeking money or trying to get Liu Ruqing into the Prince’s mansion. Liu Shuwei didn’t owe the Liu family anything; she had no reason to compromise with them.
Jiang Han nodded at her, wanting to say something, but couldn’t bring herself to. According to the plot of the book, the Liu family’s purpose in coming this time was not just to seek wealth; the things they did were hard to accept, even for her as a reader back then.
Moreover, someone as proud and arrogant as Liu Shuwei.
Jiang Han hesitated for a long time, but in the end, she still didn’t speak. She just sighed to herself and led Liu Shuwei to the front hall.
In the front hall, Liu Ruqing and Song Jing sat on the chairs, looking around anxiously. Unlike the glamorous appearance they had when they came here a few days ago, they now looked quite disheveled, and their clothes had been changed to coarse linen garments.
Seeing Jiang Han and Liu Shuwei approach, both of them brightened up, but Song Jing’s face showed a hint of bitterness, and she opened her mouth to cry out. Jiang Han didn’t give her the chance; she raised an eyebrow and looked at the two of them, who were in such a sorry state, and said, “What’s going on? How did Mrs. Song and Second Miss Liu end up like this?”
She didn’t mention it, but as soon as she did, Song Jing began to wail: “Princess, Princess, you must stand up for us! My son, Bushan, is young and naive. He was tricked by those scoundrels from the gambling den and owes a huge debt now. Our Liu family has already sold everything we had, but we still need another 10,000 taels of silver. If we can’t pay it back, they… they will chop off my son’s hand. Princess, please let the Prince arrest them….”
Song Jing cried with tears like rain, speaking with such conviction, as if Liu Bushan were blaming that group of people for the debts he incurred at the gambling house. Jiang Han curled her lips in a mocking smile and said, “Oh really? But I heard that Young Master Liu gambled for three days and nights at the gambling house, putting everything he had at home to pay off his debts, which is why the situation is as it is now.”
Song Jing choked up for a moment and cried, “But my son is young; he must have been deceived by them…”
Jiang Han smiled and said, “Young Master Liu seems to have already come of age, and is now at the age where he can marry.” The implication was, your son is a piece of sh1t.
Seeing that Jiang Han was unresponsive to her plea for help, Song Jing had no choice but to turn to Liu Shuwei, crying out, “Weiwei, I know you usually have issues with Bushan, but you are his sister. Can you really bear to not help him when he’s in trouble?”
“Auntie, you’re joking,” Liu Shuwei said with a faint smile, her tone laced with sarcasm. “It’s true that I’m Bushan’s sister, but ever since I came of age, I haven’t taken a single penny from the Liu family. I’ve been living off my mother’s dowry from back then. How could I possibly have that much money to ransom my brother?”
Speaking of the dowry, Song Jing’s eyes suddenly flickered and she said, “Weiwei, actually those dowries are quite valuable…”
Upon hearing this, Liu Shuwei suddenly had a bad premonition in her heart. Her breathing became rapid, and she clenched her fists, saying, “What do you mean?”
Song Jing forced a smile and tried to say something, but Liu Ruqing directly said, “What do you mean? It means your dowry has been sold off to pay the debts, so what? It’s just some dowry, right? Isn’t it your brother? If he takes it, then he takes it, so what? Anyway, when you marry the Prince, that dowry will still end up in your brother’s hands.”
Liu Ruqing couldn’t stand it; their family was on the verge of bankruptcy, yet Liu Shuwei could continue to live so well thanks to the prince’s favor. Although she also hated Liu Bushan for squandering the family fortune, she hated Liu Shuwei even more.
Hearing Liu Ruqing’s words, Liu Shuwei felt a darkness before her eyes, nearly fainting from anger. She covered her lips and coughed incessantly, her eyes almost bursting with fury.
Liu Ruqing wanted to say something else, but Song Jing pulled her down, looking troubled. “Weiwei, we understand that it’s not easy for you, but your brother still needs 10,000 taels of silver. Do you think we could ask the prince about this…”
“What kind of grand dream are you having?”
Before Liu Shuwei could speak, Jiang Han splashed a bucket of cold water on the situation: “Liu Bushan should be responsible for his own mess. Why should Weiwei solve it for him? Just because you made her live in the worst house in the Liu family? Or because you often deducted her money, or even cut off her money after she turned 15? Do you deserve it? Privately mortgaging her dowry without her consent is theft in the eyes of the law. Weiwei is being kind by not suing you to the government, and now you have the nerve to ask her for money?”
Jiang Han got angrier the more she thought about it, and after a long rant, she finally said, “I think you should go back and see if you can sell some more silver from the Liu family. I won’t agree to this, and neither will the Prince. If there’s nothing else, just go back.”
Jiang Han said this and was about to send people away. In fact, it wasn’t that she wanted to send people away, but that she wanted to see if this could change what the mother and daughter were going to do next.
Seeing someone coming to drive them away, Song Jing quickly pulled out a few pieces of paper from her sleeve and said tremulously, “Princess, if you don’t agree, we can exchange this instead.”
When Jiang Han saw those two pieces of paper, her expression darkened. She coldly stared at Song Jing and said, “You think you can exchange two worthless pieces of paper with me? Chun Zhu, throw them out!”
Jiang Han’s scalp tingled, fearing that Liu Shuwei would see the two pieces of paper, but Liu Shuwei didn’t notice. Song Jing, terrified, shouted out directly: “Princess, Princess, these aren’t just scraps of paper, this is Liu Shuwei’s contract of servitude! Princess, you might not need it, but the Prince definitely will! As long as you buy it, Liu Shuwei will belong to you, she can work like a horse or a cow for you!”
Silence, a deathly silence in the hall, with nothing but Song Jing’s cries echoing. Jiang Han took a deep breath, but in the end, couldn’t stop it.
In the original story, it was the same. Song Jing sought help from the original owner but to no avail, so she turned around and decided to sell her contract to the original owner. The original owner, wanting to humiliate Liu Shuwei, bought it. Thus, the hatred between the two gradually deepened step by step.
Jiang Han snapped back to reality and looked at Liu Shuwei’s expression, only to find her unexpectedly calm, even to the point of being eerily composed.
Liu Shuwei asked Song Jing in an extremely calm tone, “Does Father know about this?”
Song Jing realized that something was wrong and stopped her wailing. When she heard Liu Shuwei’s question, she just timidly nodded, “He knows, he knows everything.”
The air in the hall seemed to become even more tense, with the surrounding maids bowing their heads, fearing that this storm might inadvertently sweep them up as well. Jiang Han was also trying hard to breathe, thinking about how to face the scene before her.
Suddenly, Liu Shuwei’s gaze fell on Jiang Han. What kind of gaze was it? There was no greater sorrow than a dead heart. She saw desolation, ruin, and unbearable pain in those eyes, yet they were also filled with a plea.
Jiang Han’s heart trembled at the sight and she turned to Chun Zhu, saying, “Go fetch 10,000 taels of silvers.”
Chun Zhu left, but the hall remained quiet. Jiang Han walked over to Liu Shuwei, hesitating and unsure of what to say. Liu Shuwei, however, gently said to her, “Thank you, Princess.”
These days, Jiang Han had gotten used to Liu Shuwei calling her “sister,” but suddenly being addressed as “princess” again left her feeling at a loss. It was as if the closeness they had built up before had suddenly been pushed away.
She felt a bit uncomfortable inside. She knew what this meant to Liu Shuwei. When Liu Shuwei looked at her with such pleading eyes today, she realized that in Liu Shuwei’s heart, their relationship could never go back to how it was. Liu Shuwei would always place herself in a position lower than her.
Jiang Han choked for a moment, wanting to say something, but ended up saying nothing. The feeling of pent-up anger and irritation made her gaze at Song Jing turn very unfriendly.
With a turn, she seemed to transform overnight from the calm Jiang Han into the domineering princess. She narrowed her phoenix eyes at Song Jing and said coldly, “After taking these money, Weiwei will have nothing to do with you from now on. Whether you are poor or suffering in the future, it has nothing to do with her, Liu Shuwei. From now on, Liu Shuwei will belong to me. If I find anyone bothering her again, I will break their legs!”
When she said the last sentence, the coldness in Jiang Han’s voice was unmistakable. Song Jing, having received the money, dared not say anything more and hurriedly nodded, “We will definitely not come looking for Weiwei again.”
The matter was resolved, but Jiang Han’s mood was not as cheerful as one might expect. She looked at the mother and daughter with disdain, ordered them to be driven out, and instructed the servants not to spread the word about this incident.
After getting everything done, Jiang Han walked over to Liu Shuwei. She was overwhelmed with mixed feelings, wanting to comfort her but not knowing where to start.
At this moment, Liu Shuwei finally regained her voice. She bowed to Jiang Han and said, her face pale, “Thank you, Princess. I am not feeling well and would like to return to rest.”
Jiang Han had no reason to refuse, so she agreed. She looked at Liu Shuwei’s frail figure, feeling even more pity in her heart. It was all the fault of that Liu family, each one of them acting as if their hearts were covered in lard, pushing Liu Shuwei towards a dead end.
That afternoon, as Jiang Han had expected, Liu Shuwei did not go out for a meal. It wasn’t until the evening, with Jiang Han’s company, that she ate a small bowl of porridge. For several consecutive days, Liu Shuwei had eaten very little, and Jiang Han’s mood inexplicably worsened as well.
Sometimes it was during the time spent playing with Gu Hanyun and others, and sometimes it was when she was alone. Originally, she was nice to Liu Shuwei just because she was the female lead, but after going through so much, she now genuinely feels heartbroken for Liu Shuwei.
Gu Hanyun and the others had noticed Jiang Han’s unusual behavior. Although Jiang Han had silenced the servants that day, some rumors still managed to spread. The concubines had naturally heard some of them. As for Qi Ze, he hadn’t visited Liu Shuwei next door for quite some time, possibly because he was too busy.
Jiang Han naturally thought of many ways to win Liu Shuwei’s favor, but Liu Shuwei was used to pretending to be happy. After pretending to be happy, she would automatically distance herself from her. Days passed, and not only did Liu Shuwei not become happier, but Jiang Han ended up feeling a bit depressed.